what are these?

Can you guess what these are?

No, not frisbees. Yes, they are edible. Here's another clue.

These are not my creations, though they were made in the kitchen. This is a photo of Jed adding some more 'bits' with royal icing.

I order my disposable icing bags from ebay. Not surprisingly they come from China. It was exciting watching Jed trying to read the Chinese characters written on the outside of each icing bag. I look forward to hearing Jed speak fluent Mandarin one day!

Whilst you may be correct in guessing that these are giant biscuits, they are even more than that. 

They are representations of cells. The round one is an animal cell and the square one is a plant cell. Of course! I can hear you say.

 These enormous biscuits - the recipe is by Bridget Edwards and can be found HERE - were transported to Jed's Science classroom this morning. Part of Jed's assignment required that the cell organelles (or parts of the cell) be presented in some way. The actual assignment sheet provided some suggestions, including making large biscuits.  Now, I would like to think that Jed decided upon biscuits to combine his scholastic ability with his baking skills. However, the reality is that he knows how good these biscuits taste and how appreciative his friends would be if they could be eaten after Science!

 Jed not only has a good knowledge of cell organelles but will also be very appreciative of all decorated biscuits from now on!

And the best part? I have biscuit dough left over. Yay!

quilting bees

The block I chose to be made by everyone in the bee.

After a great experience participating in a quilting bee in 2013 I decided it was time to go again.

I was so keen that I signed up for two. And signed up a friend for one as well!

One of the quilting bees I am participating in is being hosted by Angie at GnomeAngel and Alyce at Blossom Heart Quilts. It is called The Bee Hive Quilting Bee. More on that later when I've actually sewn this month's block! It will look something like this:

Star Plus paper pieced block. Photo from Kristy at Quiet Play.

I have, however, completed this month's block for the Quilt Club Australia Bee #1. And it was not fun! There aren't a lot of patterns or projects that I have sewn that I have not enjoyed, but this was one of them. One of the aspects of participating in a bee that I like is sewing blocks that I wouldn't otherwise attempt or am interested in. From that point of view it was a good experience.

This block is called Interlocking Seasons and the tutorial we were asked to follow is found at The Parfait Cafe. We were also asked to use soft chocolate brown for the background, a soft pastel grey green for the inner ring and soft pastel pinky corals for the outer rings. These are not my colours at all, so it took me a while to audition fabrics. I really felt the responsibility of making something for someone else!

I found this block very fiddly and, truth be told, I don't like it. I prefer blocks that are more proportionate in their fiddliness-to-finished-outcome ratio. I do, however, think these blocks will make a lovely quilt.

So that makes this a great bee block because the Queen Bee doesn't have to make a whole quilt top of fiddly blocks! So clever. I'm on the hunt for the perfect bee block. Any suggestions? I'm considering a block that I have designed myself. What do you think? Shall I give you a sneak preview?

what teachers really do

I began this blog post last week, but appear to have been swept up in the current of the new school year. While I miss not having Eli at home with me a few days a week, I am making good use of my time, working hard on some things (nothing that involves a sewing machine or fabric!) that have been waiting for a very long time!

Today is the last day of the summer school holidays. Most of us are excited about starting the new school year; Eli will be attending full time and Jed is starting high school.

All the uniform clothing has been labelled, books sorted, bags packed and lunchboxes readied to be filled on Monday. I'm not that thrilled about making four lunchboxes every day, though I willingly do it for my children. Yes kids, I love you so I feed you!

As the school holidays come to and end I thought I'd share something that Zoe made at the beginning of this gloriously long holiday break. It's a book entitled What Teachers Really Do At School.

It made me laugh. I hope you do too (unless you are a teacher exactly like the one in Zoe's book. If you are, you won't be laughing. You will be annoyed that you have been exposed.).

I've taught a few classes over the years where a bed to rest and recuperate afterwards would have been in order!

What? There are cakes in the staff room? Why didn't I know about this?

Zoe was clearly ready for some time away from school, don't you think?

I had a little chat with her just to make sure that everything is fine. And it is. And also to assure her that I am nothing like her fictitious teacher when I am 'Mrs Masson'!!